Should I Be Eating This? Magnum Double Caramel Bar

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I know what you think of the frozen-desserts aisle: That's a place for women and children, not men. That there's a reason you never saw Steve McQueen or John Wayne eating frozen desserts, and it's because it's not possible for a man to look cool while eating a Popsicle or scooping melting ice cream off a cone.

That all may be true, and probably is. But there's a new entrant to the field this summer that deserves a second look, and that's Magnum ice-cream bars. While they're brand-new to the U.S. market, Magnum bars have been in the U.K. since the '80s, and they're currently the world's top individual frozen dairy snack, which is saying something. Now, amid the sea of primary colors, cartoon animals, and reduced-calorie fruit pops that is your grocer's freezer case lies the shadowy, burnished Magnum box, promising maybe, just maybe, a frozen dessert fit for adult males.

The Magnum bar has one immediate and obvious advantage over your average freezer-aisle sweet, and that's the name. Magnum. This is a word that conjures up handguns, Tom Selleck, Transformers, giant bottles of Barolo, and, okay, maybe a certain over-large prophylactic, but let's try to avoid that connotation.

The packaging isn't bad, either: A simple brown-and-gold color scheme that doesn't promise weight loss or a toy inside every box — just real Belgian chocolate and none of the nonsense. And let's not forget that ice-cream bars are, after all, food on a stick. There's nothing wrong with food on a stick.

As soon as I removed the bar from its gold wrapper, I realized that this thing has some serious heft to it. This is a man-sized dessert, not a dainty lady-treat. I sunk my teeth into the first bite and was pleased to discover a double-thick chocolate coating that gave way with a satisfying snap. Promising. Unfortunately, lurking underneath the Belgian milk chocolate was an oozing, sickly-sweet layer of caramel syrup. Gross. Things started looking up, however, after I fought past the caramel. The bar's center was pure vanilla-bean ice cream — smooth, simple, and classic.

The verdict? The Magnum Classic or Magnum Dark flavors would have been better choices, since that caramel lining was the bar's only real failing. But all in all, there is no shame in consuming this object. Do not be afraid.